# 1852 Presidential Election [[Franklin Pierce]] (Democrat), another "dark horse" New England Democrat, defeated Whig nominee General Winfield Scott in an electoral-college landslide — 254 to 42. The **last presidential election in which the [[Whig Party]] fielded a major candidate**; by 1856 the Whigs had collapsed and the Republican Party had emerged in their place. Pierce's victory was the [[Compromise of 1850]] / Fugitive Slave Act coalition holding briefly together one last time. The collapse of that coalition under the [[Kansas-Nebraska Act]] of 1854 would destroy both the Whig Party and Pierce's political future. ## Result - **[[Franklin Pierce]]** (Democrat) — 254 electoral votes, 50.8% popular - **Winfield Scott** (Whig) — 42 electoral votes, 43.9% popular - John P. Hale (Free Soil) — 0 electoral votes, 4.9% popular - Total: 296 electoral votes ## Right-wing relevance The 1852 election is significant as the operational death of the Whig Party. The collapse of the Whig coalition between 1852 and 1854 is one of the canonical American examples of a major political party going from competitive to extinct in two years — a precedent occasionally invoked in contemporary commentary on whether the post-Trump Republican Party or post-Biden Democratic Party could undergo similar disintegration if a coalition-rupturing issue (immigration, AI policy, foreign-war alignment) detonated similarly. The 1854 Republican emergence completed the realignment. ## Connections - [[Franklin Pierce]] — Winner; consistently ranked among worst presidents. - [[Millard Fillmore]] — Outgoing Whig president; passed over for renomination; would run again in 1856 as Know-Nothing. - [[US Presidents Hub]] - [[US Presidential Timeline]] ---